Retailers and manufacturers routinely issue coupons to entice prospective customers into purchasing their products. Coupons are often issued to encourage product purchases, promote products, create product awareness, encourage product trials, reward repeat purchases, and clear unwanted inventory of products.
Capturing and analyzing customer coupon usage patterns may provide insight into customer shopping habits. Tracking customer responses to issued coupons is often an effective mechanism for identifying customer specific characteristics. Coupons and promotions can then be tailored to specific customers based on an analysis of identified customer specific characteristics. This may enable retailers and manufacturers to more effectively target their coupon offerings to interested customers and refine future product campaigns and promotions.